"[Smith]...reminds you that you can...survive deep loss, sink into
life's deep beauty, and constantly, constantly make yourself new."
--Glennon Doyle, #1 New York Times bestselling author
Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2023 by Good Housekeeping,
Goodreads, Zibby Mag, Newsweek, BookPage, and LitHub
The bestselling poet and author of the "powerful" (People) and
"luminous" (Newsweek) Keep Moving offers a lush and heartrending
memoir exploring coming of age in your middle age.
"Life, like a poem, is a series of choices."
In her memoir You Could Make This Place Beautiful, poet Maggie Smith
explores the disintegration of her marriage and her renewed commitment
to herself in lyrical vignettes that shine, hard and clear as jewels.
The book begins with one woman's personal, particular heartbreak, but
its circles widen into a reckoning with contemporary womanhood,
traditional gender roles, and the power dynamics that persist even in
many progressive homes. With the spirit of self-inquiry and empathy
she's known for, Smith interweaves snapshots of a life with meditations
on secrets, anger, forgiveness, and narrative itself. The power of these
pieces is cumulative: page after page, they build into a larger
interrogation of family, work, and patriarchy.
You Could Make This Place Beautiful, like the work of Deborah Levy,
Rachel Cusk, and Gina Frangello, is an unflinching look at what it means
to live and write our own lives. It is a story about a mother's fierce
and constant love for her children, and a woman's love and regard for
herself. Above all, this memoir is an argument for possibility. With a
poet's attention to language and an innovative approach to the genre,
Smith reveals how, in the aftermath of loss, we can discover our power
and make something new. Something beautiful.